The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has proposed this Wednesday to incorporate abortion to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in a debate before the European Parliament in Strasbourg that had pre-campaign overtones for the French presidential elections in April.
“I want us to consolidate our values as Europeans, which are our unity, our pride and our strength. Twenty years after the proclamation of our Charter of Fundamental Rights, I hope that we can update it to be more explicit about protection of the environment or recognition of the right to abortion”, Macron said in a speech before MEPs.
The French president thus presented the priorities of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the next six months. Macron, who has recalled that said document enshrined in the EU the abolition of the death penalty, has urged to open this debate “freely with our highly conscientious European citizens to give new impetus to our rule of law”.
This document, which includes the civil, political, economic and social rights of Europeans and was proclaimed in the year 2000, requires the unanimity of all member states to be reformed, so Macron’s message has more political than practical symbolism.
His proposal to reform this document comes the day after the European Parliament elected – with the votes of Macron’s political family – its new president, Maltese Roberta Metsola, coming from a country that prohibits abortion in any circumstance, which has provoked criticism from the most progressive bloc in the hemicycle.
In a speech in which he called for “giving new life” to the European promises of democracy, progress and peace, the French president also emphasized the defense of the rule of law and lamented that his generation is the one that “rediscovers the precariousness of democratic values”, which he asked not to take for granted.
“The last few months have shown that the management of the pandemic in democracies with parliamentary debates and a free press have led to better decisions than those of authoritarian regimes,” explained the Frenchman, who warned that setbacks in the rule of law are the “beginnings of the return to authoritarianism” and asked “to convince those who have gone astray with great respect and in dialogue.”
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
